Rugby league fans have panned new ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie after the former Queensland premier and self-described lifelong rugby league fan could not pick Cronulla’s nickname during an interview on Monday.

“Before you’re officially welcomed, you’ve got to answer one question,” the Nine Network’s 100% Footy host Phil Gould told Beattie in a sit-down interview. “The team that plays out of the Sutherland Shire – is it the Cronulla Hawks, the Cronulla Seagulls or the Cronulla Sharks?”